Diagonally? Really?

On my way to work this morning, just after I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed that someone from work was driving the car behind me, a large BMW something or other slid from my right into the lane in front of me. No problem. Lots of space. He sailed in, and then started moving to the left turn lane.

But, just as the BMW was changing lanes, a woman in a silver Infiniti decided she wanted to do the same thing. There was a major difference, though. The BMW had plenty of space. The Infiniti had barely enough.

So she accelerated, and I hit the brakes and the horn simultaneously. Luckily, my coworker in the car behind me had already dealt with the Infiniti trying to cut her off, and so she had been driving more defensively, too.

Next thing I know, I've slammed to a stop, and the Infiniti is diagonal in front of me -- half in my lane, half in the turn lane to our left. I rolled around her and pulled alongside. For the entire length of the red light, I sat and stared at her. She never looked my direction.

On the one hand, I guess I have to be happy that she obviously knew what she had done was wrong. On the other hand, my heartrate was so high from then until I got to work that I probably burned through a year's worth of adrenaline.

The light changed and the Infiniti was eventually able to straighten her car into the lane and drive away.

My coworker walked up to me in the office and said that she was ready to get out of her car and pound on the window of the woman in the Infiniti. But me, I was just glad that we -- and our cars -- didn't actually meet.